"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."

In a way that seems almost fair....apart from on me. A lot of contributors have lost someone.

The ProfessorSunil Narine (KKR)JP Duminy (MI)

Adi Virat Kohli (RCB)…but will pick up for Surrey shortly.

Andy AB De Villiers (RCB)

RDJQuinton de Kock (RCB) – but has been MIA for last fortnight.

Rich Ravi Ashwin (KXIP)

DCAaron Finch (KXIP)

"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."

Whilst Jadeja has had a far from sparkling performance personally; this is the second Indian final he has found himself in in 2018

"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."

"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."

Rumours that Kohli's spell at Surrey in doubt due to injury and fatigue

"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."

Canada T20 franchise league shows video reel at opening ceremony in Toronto announcing Australia's Steve Smith as one of their overseas players for league scheduled to begin June 28. Also includes Narine.

"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."

Many players relish the opportunity to be the hero. Think Lala Amarnath in 1933, think Botham in 1981 and start thinking Rashid Khan in 2018. The thing about the heroism of the Afghanistani player is he seems to enjoy contrasting some world beating performances at the end of tournaments with some pretty mediocre showings just before. He has done this already this year. Afghanistan seemed out of the World Cup Qualifiers earlier in the year but rose Phoenix like and managed to qualify - led, of course, by captain Rashid Khan. This week we have seen a similar pattern. Whilst the Hyderabad bowler's performances this season have been important to his side, he has often lacked consistency and oscillated between non-eventful showings and match-winning displays. This has been epitomised in his three games this week. He began the week with something he manages to do quite often and scored 0 points from the final group stage game against Kolkata. This acted as a counterpoint to the two games that followed where he claimed eight wickets and kept his economy startlingly low, whilst also holding his nerve to help his side into the final. His eight wickets this week weren't any old wickets, however. Not many bowlers would be able to match a weekly haul boasting the likes of Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, MS Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers and Moeen Ali. This performance has not been enough to overhaul Simon Harmer from the top of the overall table, however he has halved the South African's lead and now sits 193 points below the Essex bowler.

His performances over the last fortnight have been so impressive but Kane Williamson has proved himself to be something of an inverse Rashid Khan in the IPL this week. Whilst his Hyderabad team mate stepped up to the plate, the New Zealander got his lowest weekly yield of points for the entire tournament. This will not overly distress him however as he has used the showpiece to boost his position in the overall table - climbing from 11th to 5th on his way to tomorrow's final. He has also come out on top of the trio of batsmen with whom he has been vying over the last month - finishing 167 points above Virat Kohli and 328 above AB De Villiers. Both Bangalore players have had something of an eventful week - and one that will effect their point scoring over the coming months. Kohli's neck injury has seen him forced to cancel his spell with Surrey and put an end to his run of 7 consecutive weeks of point scoring. On the other hand AB De Villiers announced his international retirement which may increase his chances of playing more domestic cricket and T20 competitions - something which will boost his points going forward.

Dean Elgar needs special mention before we wrap up with his highest score for 8 weeks. We are used to praising bowlers Simon Harmer and Jeetan Patel for their domestic performances but this week both Elgar and fellow countryman Hashim Amla have used the bat and the plethora of games in the Royal London One Day Cup to propel them into the top five for the week. Both South Africans languish outside the top ten but will continue to play very regularly over the coming weeks whilst their IPL playing compatriots will now be resting.

"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."

Jeetan Patel will never get as much credit as Simon Harmer due to the piece of silverware that sits in Essex's trophy cabinet - but this week the Warwickshire captain tops our weekly table for the fourth time. This draws him equal with his South African counterpart, Harmer. It has been a week of Royal London One Day Cup toil for Patel, who is used to having things easier for Wellington. He has has two complete washouts in the last three matches and a couple of average performances including a single wicket against Northamptonshire. His position at the top of the weekly table is largely down to last night's 3/51 against Durham and contributions in the field in that match and in the previous. He also benefits from playing two games when a majority of point scoring contributors have only (just about) managed one. The New Zealand bowler still sits in fourth position overall but is drawing in on third place Sunil Narine who has a period of time out of the game after his IPL toils.

The phrase 'famine or feast' has been applied to Rashid Khan throughout 2018 with a long list of inconsistent performances in both the World Cup Qualifiers as well as the IPL. He took this to a new height this week with two high profile performances that show off two very different sides of his character. In last week's IPL final defeat, Rashid would have been disappointed to not get anything in the wicket column - however his economy was strangling low. His economy of 6 from his 4 overs was coupled with that rare of a thing - a T20 maiden. This does not hide the fact that he got a mere 15 points from this game. His other performance came this week for a World-XI playing the West Indies at Lord's for charity. Here the Afghanistan spinner got the prize wickets of Evin Lewis and Marlon Samuels but had a sky high economy - exactly double what he got in the IPL final. Overall it would have been a disappointing week for the man who sits second in our overall table losing, as he did, both games. He is regularly placing outside the top five in our weekly table and may be concerned about his placing with Bangladesh and India round the corner for Afghanistan.

They need resilience these Cricketers. Five weeks ago, AB De Villiers was the best cricketer of the week and then was at the foot of the table the following week. This week Simon Harmer has done the same thing with a yield of just 11 points from his two games this week. This equates to one run and a catch in the game against Surrey. A fallow period for wickets for the best cricketer in the world statistically. The table topping South African bowler can take hope from the fact that second place Rashid Khan also had a poor week but will not be able to rest on his laurels as Essex try and reach the knock out stage of the Royal London One Day Cup.

The majority of us have to rely on one player - apart from Ian who had two players represented in the IPL final. Kane Williamson helps Andy into thrd placeRed Devil Junior has four consecutive weeks of 0

"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."